sundance-communications.com Forums Telephony Discussion Phone & VoIP Systems Nortel Telephones & Systems bcm50 16 to 32 port card

hi everyone,

customer has a bcm50 v5 or 6 (cranial flatulence right now) with a digital line exp pack and a regular exp pack with a 16 port digital phone card in it. they need more ext.s so we are going to swap 16 port card for a 32 port... are there any surprises waiting for me with this swap, they're an ambulance company, so phones can only be down for an absolute minimum amount of time.

thanks
rich

How many phones do you currently have on the system? Are you currently running just the internal 12 sets and the 16 port expansion? You aren't supposed to exceed 44 digital stations on the BCM50. You should not have a problem, but make sure you have the key codes to activate the additional sets and if they using voice mail, then you will need voice mail boxes?

You don't need keycodes to add additional sets to the expansion module. If you have the EXP keycode and have 16-module that code is also good for the 32-module.
You will need key codes to gain more VM boxes.

Thanks Jim.. I forgot that the code goes with the expansion. Those damn key codes drive me crazy sometimes!!

thanks for the help

put the card in sat. night and didn't seem to have any problems. went into resources and changed the card type to 32 port, then enabled the first bank of 16. said 'enabling' for 10 or 15 mins then changed to 'enabled', when i enabled the 2nd bank it said 'enabling' for about a half hr then i had to leave so i'm not 100% that the 2nd 16 are working, but i also thought later, maybe it needed an ext connected before it would finish enabling. i brought the wrong gender amp cable so i couldn't connect one then anyway. guess i'll find out in the morning.
voice mail keycodes aren't an issue with them since only 4 or 5 of the uppity ups have mailboxes.

thanks again
rich

Yes, It is crazy, but you have to have at least one phone connected to that part of the 16-port module before it will come ready. Plug a phone in, give it a few min, then refresh your screen.